Nick Yunis Wins 2024 World Poker Tour bestbet Scramble Championship

Nick Yunis has cashed for thousands and thousands of {dollars} on the stay match poker circuit, however up till this week all of his largest scores had are available in shut calls. While he had a number of six-figure windfalls on his resume, that they had all are available in occasions the place he fell simply wanting the title. That all modified when the Chilean participant emerged victorious from a area of 361 entries within the 2024 World Poker Tour bestbet Scramble $5,000 buy-in no-limit maintain’em principal occasion.

After securing the win so as to add his identify to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup, Yunis collected a career-high payout of $315,791. He now sits with practically $2.1 million in recorded scores to his identify.

“I still can’t believe it. I’m like, ‘Am I dreaming?’ I’ve been playing for so long and I always wanted to accomplish this… a major title,” Yunis advised WPT reporters after popping out on high. “I’m thankful to God, to my supporters, my family that’s watching. My wife couldn’t come because of the baby, but I know they are extremely happy for me and I’m just over the moon.”

This victory additionally added 1,200 Card Player Player of the Year factors to Yunis’ tally. This was his second POY-qualified rating of 2024, having received a $1,100 buy-in aspect occasion on the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown again in April for $34,005 and 264 factors.

This match ran from Nov. 15-19 at bestbet Jacksonville. It featured a $1 million assure that was surpassed by greater than $642,000 by the point registration closed. The high 46 finishers made the cash on this occasion, with huge names like bracelet winner Raj Vohra (forty first), 2024 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown principal occasion winner Josh Reichard (thirtieth), 2015 WSOP principal occasion champion Joe McKeehen (seventeenth), WPT champion and three-time bracelet winner Tony Dunst (sixteenth), bracelet winner Francis Anderson (eighth), and T.Ok. Miles (seventh) all operating deep.

The last day started with three-time WPT champion Eric Afriat out in entrance of the remaining six contenders, having added to his lead when his Ok-J outran Miles’ A-Q within the last hand of day 3. Afriat prolonged his benefit even additional when Dion Jagroo moved all-in with a gutshot straight draw on a queen-high flop. Afriat referred to as with pocket jacks and held via the river to remove Jagroo in sixth place ($71,000).

A few orbits after that knockout, Nicholas Funaro went for a multi-street bluff with 9 excessive in a battle of the blinds. He raised each the flop and switch in place, then moved all-in when checked to on the river with a last board of Q85AOk. His opponent, Yunis, made the decision with 85 for 2 pair. Funaro may solely produce 93, which meant that he was heading residence with $93,000 because the fifth-place finisher. Funaro, the youthful brother of two-time bracelet winner Frank Funaro, now has $776,480 in profession match earnings.

The same hand led to the downfall of Joe Jordan on this occasion. He additionally tried a multi-street bluff towards Yunis, who this time had a good stronger hand with a flopped full home. Jordan shoved the river with king excessive and acquired a snap name from Yunis’ fours full. He was left with only a handful of huge blinds, and was quickly all-in with Ok-4 suited trailing A-6 for Yunis. Neither participant related with a double-paired runout and ace excessive despatched Jordan packing in fourth place ($123,000).

Yunis overtook the lead early in three-handed play, successful a giant pot with a rivered king-high straight to edge forward of Afriat. Yunis then pulled off a river bluff shove to power Afriat off the most effective hand, leaving the Afriat brief within the course of. Afriat was nicely positioned to attain a much-needed double up when he received all-in with OkOk main the 99 of latest WPT Prime Playground championship winner Yunkyu Song. The board got here down 97653 and Song’s high set despatched Afriat residence only a few-spots shy of incomes a record-tying fourth WPT title. For now, Darren Elias stays the tour’s solely four-time principal occasion champion.

Heads-up play started with Yunis holding roughly a 2:1 chip lead over Song. The two agreed to a deal at one level that redistributed the remaining prize cash a bit, setting apart $33,000 and the title to play for, which included a $10,400 seat into subsequent month’s WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. As a outcome, Yunis locked up a minimum of $282,791 whereas Song secured $252,059.

Song managed a double-up after getting fairly brief, however was nonetheless at a giant chip drawback. He slid down to only over 11 huge blinds forward of the ultimate hand. Yunis shoved from the button with Ok3 and Song referred to as with Ok5 from the massive blind. The flop got here down OkJ4 to offer each gamers high pair. The 7 flip added a flush draw to Song’s outs for one more double up. The river introduced the three to enhance Yunis to kings and threes, bringing the match to an in depth.

This runner-up displaying gave Song his largest payday but, rising his profession match earnings to greater than $1.4 million. He additionally earned 1,000 POY factors for what was his tenth final-table displaying of the yr, together with his aforementioned WPT Prime triumph in Canada in October. With 4,804 whole factors, Song is now ranked twenty third within the 2024 POY race offered by Global Poker.

Here is a have a look at the payouts and POY factors awarded on the last desk:

Photo credit: WPT / Katerina Lukina.